It is known that many Tamils believe that the Muslims have very little Arab blood in them and that they are predominantly the descendants of Tamil converts to Islam who mostly married low caste Tamils. Relevant in this connection is my last article on Muslim identity in relation to caste. I and others have not been able to make out the rationale behind the Tamil attacks on me except on the ground of an intense caste mentality among the Tamils. But I believe that I am the only Muslim to have consistently berated the Muslim politicians for their support for every bit of Sinhalese racist idiocy against the Tamils. It is known of course that part of the explanation for Tamil anti-Muslim hatred is that the Muslims consistently took the Sinhalese side against the Tamils. But I have shown more than once that I was outspokenly against that. One Tamil held that the attacks were because I had infamously advocated famine as a weapon to subdue the Tamil rebellion. But since then practically every article of mine has provoked attacks by one or more Tamils, exhibiting the same hysterical hatred and mad dog rage.
It is possible that the concerted attacks had behind them a foreign Islamophobic group or a state. His argument was that all the attacks showed an identical style. One Tamil has argued that the concerted attacks against me by around seven to ten Tamils that went on week after week for several months were the work of just one individual who assumed several Tamil nom de plumes. What is most interesting is that there has been no serious attempt to substantiate that charge, none whatever.
The insistence has continued that I have been for several decades an extreme anti-Tamil racist. Not one of those details has been refuted, but – true to form – about a couple of Tamils have jeered and sneered over my claim to be pro-Tamil. Earlier I listed many details to establish that I should be counted as among the most pro-Tamil of all the non-Tamils in this island. I must briefly recapitulate some of the essential facts that led me to that conclusion. Earlier I have sought to explain the fact that Tamil anti-Muslim racism has been much worse than that of the Sinhalese on the ground that the Tamils are far more caste conscious than the Sinhalese. It also seems reasonable to think that the caste system according to which some castes are born inferior and will remain inferior throughout their lives can conduce to particularly nasty and virulent forms of racism. We can safely assume that practically every ethnic group in the world could produce its quota of racists, and that the extent of the racism and its intensity could vary due to many factors. No trend better encapsulates the State’s increasing acquiescence to civilian weaponization of racial fear than Stand Your Ground laws.The material provided by attacks on my articles in the Colombo Telegraph by Tamil racists over a long period prompts the thought that there could be a case for establishing a special category of racism that might appropriately be called “casteist racism”. Thanks to gun rights lobbies and state legislatures across the country, now they can. Some white space defenders want to be more involved, to take the law into their own hands under the guise of self-defense. It relies on a 911 dispatcher and a trained law enforcement officer to act on the frivolous, race-baiting tip. But this type of color line enforcement is a step removed from the action. Akin to keyboard warriors and internet trolls, 911 abusers can lob unsubstantiated attacks and escape involvement or scrutiny themselves. In most cases, it lends anonymity, allowing a racially fragile citizen to lodge a complaint and recede into the shadows as armed agents of the State assume responsibility. Weaponizing phone lines to enforce white spaces has proven an effective tool for the passively fearful.
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